


V^ 



"^ 



o 
^0 







for Thomas ap Thomas Jones, 

of Bathurst, Virginia 

■ ■ ■ 

A REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER 

By LEWIS H. JONES 




Oi 

"— H 

Mo 

>*~^ Lu 01 
OKI 

UX J m 

— 'a 2- 

XI-- 



Major Tnomas ap Thomas Jones, 

» 

of BatKurst, Virginia 



A Revolutionary Soldier 



BY LEWIS H: JONES 






Gift 

Author 



Major TKomas ap TKomas Jones, of BatKurst, 
a ReA^olutionarj) Soldier 



Facts and circumstances from which it appears that my 

great-grandfather Major Thomas ap Thomas Jones, of Bathurst, 

Essex County, Virginia, was First Lieutenant Thomas Jones 

mentioned by Heitman and Saffell as enlisting in the Second 

Virginia regiment February 19, 1776, and as being First Lieutenant 

of Capt. Samuel Hawes' company, from which he resigned May 

7,1777. 

By Lewis H. Jones, Louisville, Ky. 

* In the first place my great-grandfather Thomas Jones, later 
known as Major Thomas ap Thomas Jones, of Bathurst, Essex 
county, Virginia, lived during the period in which he enlisted 
and served in the Revolutionary army In Northumberland 
county, where he was born and reared. A careful search of all 
probable sources of information, such as Heitman, Saffell, the 
records in the U. S. War Department, the records in the U. S. 
Pension Office, Dr. Eckenrode's book of Revolutionary Soldiers 
of Virginia, the original or manuscript Journals of the Virginia 
Council from 1776 to 1781, the Journal of the House of Dele- 
gates for the same period, the minutes of the Virginia Committee 
of Safety, files of colonial newspapers for the same period 
found in the Virginia State Library, the library of the Virginia 



*This matter was prepared simply as a paper to be submitted to the 
Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington, D. C, to be accompanied 
by the affidavit of the writer and a set of the photostats referred to in the body 
of the paper. It was prepared at the instance of a niece who expects to apply to 
become a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and desires to 
nssign as one of her honor ancestors Major Thomas ap Thomas Jones, of Bathurst. 

1 



Historical Society, the Norfolk, Virginia, Library, the Library of 
Congress, and the library of the Maryland Historical Society, 
fails to reveal any Thomas Jones who belonged to the Second 
Virginia, other than this first lieutenant, and in as much as 
the particular county is given from which every other Thomas 
Jones mentioned as a Revolutionary soldier hailed, and none 
of them was from Northumberland county, it follows that this 
first lieutenant of the Second Virginia is the only Thomas Jones 
mentioned who could have been from Northumberland county, 
and, therefore, the only Thomas Jones mentioned who could 
have been my ancestor, for my ancestor certainly lived in 
Northumberland county when he enlisted. Furthermore, it 
appears that no one claims descent from First Lieutenant 
Thomas Jones of the Second Virginia, except the descendants 
of Major Thomas ap Thomas Jones of Bathurst. 

The Second Virginia was a favorite regiment with the 
Virginians. It was authorized by the Virginia Convention, July 
17, 1775, "as a force of regular troops for State defense," and 
"William Woodford, a veteran of the Indian wars, was chosen 
Colonel" — Va. Mag. of Hist. It was accepted by the Con- 
tinental Congress as part of Virginia's quota in the new Con- 
tinental army, with Col. Woodford as its colonel, on February 
13, 1776, and on the 19th of February this First Lieutenant 
Thomas Jones, according to Heitman, enlisted in the regiment. 
Now Heitman gives Catesby Jones, a younger brother of my 
ancestor Thomas Jones, as being already a first lieutenant in 
the Second Virginia when First Lieutenant Thomas Jones 
enlisted. The brothers Thomas and Catesby lived on terms 
of the closest friendship and affection throughout their lives 
and died within a few months of each other, in 1800. Colonel 
Woodford, who commanded the Second Virginia, was an own 
cousin of the father of Thomas and Catesby Jones, and, in 



addition to the fact that his brother Catesby already belonged 
to the regiment, having enlisted in September, 1775, the 
circumstance that it was commanded by his near kinsman 
would be a strong reason why my ancestor Thomas Jones 
should choose to enlist in this regiment in preference to any 
other, while the fact that his younger brother was a first lieu- 
tenant in the regiment would make it improbable that he would 
be offered an office of lower rank in the same regiment. Col- 
onel Woodford was an officer of fine prestige and extensive 
experience gained in the French and Indian wars, and in the 
opinion of those most competent to judge had before him the 
promise of as brilliant a career as any officer in the service. 
Standard biographies have this to say of him: "He served 
with credit during the French and Indian war, and in the 
autumn of 1775, on the assembling of the Virginia troops at 
Williamsburg, was chosen colonel of the Second Virginia regi- 
ment. At Hampton Roads, the first battle of the Revolution 
in Virginia, he was engaged in preventing the destruction of 
the town of Hampton by Lord Dunmore, and sank five of his 
vessels. Col. Woodford had command of the Virginians that 
defended Great Bridge on Elizabeth River, and defeated the 
force that was sent by Lord Dunmore to take it, after a sharp 
battle in which the British suffered a loss of fifty-five, while 
not a single Virginian was killed. He called the militia of 
Norfolk and Princess Ann counties to arms, and on the 14th of 
December, 1775, occupied Norfolk. He was appointed briga- 
dier-general on February 21, 1777, and given command of the 
First Virginia Brigade." With such a kinsman for a commander 
what reason could there have been, what circumstance could 
have operated, to induce my ancestor, the brother of Catesby 
Jones, to enlist in another regiment! The young men Thomas 
and Catesby Jones belonged to a wealthy, influential, and 



forceful family. They were the eldest sons of Colonel Thomas 
Jones, clerk of Northumberland county, under the old ap- 
pointive system, from the time of his appointment in 1740, 
when in his twenty- third year, to the time of his death. He was 
always addressed and referred to, at least in his maturer years, 
as Colonel Thomas Jones. In the Virginia Magazine of April, 
1918, he is said to have been a colonel of militia. He was 
elected State senator from the counties of Lancaster, Rich- 
mond, and Northumberland in 1780, to succeed Francis Light- 
foot Lee who resigned, but was disqualified by the fact that he 
held another civil office at the time. He owned a commodious 
home and a large tract of adjoining land in Northumberland 
county, called Mountzion, or Cherry Point, where all of his 
children were born and reared and where he continued to reside 
until he moved to Spring Garden in Hanover county in 1782. 
Thomas and Catesby were his two elder sons, Catesby was 
later commissioned a major of State troops, and was the father 
of Thomas ap Catesby Jones, U. S. Navy, who as a young 
lieutenant commanded the flotilla of gunboats that fought 
the British fleet on Lake Borgne in defense of New Orleans, and 
of Major-General Roger Jones, U. S. Army, and others. Of 
the younger sons, Meriwether Jones was a member of the 
governor's Council, was a distinguished political writer, founded 
the Richmond Examiner, newspaper, which he edited with 
distinguished ability until he was killed in a duel in 1806. 
Long obituary notices and eulogies of him appeared in two 
contemporary newspapers of Richmond. Skelton Jones was a 
lawyer of Richmond and a distinguished writer. He succeeded 
his brother Meriwether as editor of the Examiner and contin- 
ued to edit the paper until he was killed in a duel. In a foot 
note to the 18 12 edition of Hening's Statutes at Large there 
appears this reference to Skelton Jones: "They [the Byrd MSS] 



are now in the possession of Skelton Jones, Esq., who has under- 
taken to complete the History of Virginia, left unfinished by 
his predecessor. From the well known talents of this gentle- 
man, and his celebrity as a writer, the public, it is believed, will 
have no cause to regret the change of historians, notwithstand- 
ing the deservedly high reputation of Mr. Burke as an author. 
Bathurst Jones was a member of the Virginia Assembly from 
Hanover county. Jekyll Jones, of Richmond, was a political 
writer of note. They were a family particularly noted for their 
intelligence, personal courage, and force of character. Of the 
girls, Elizabeth married Gawin Corbin, Mary Bathurst married 
Lancelot Lee, Sally married Capt. Nat Anderson, and Jane 
married Judge John Monroe, a kinsman of the President. In 
the Virginia Gazette of May lo, 1776, there is a notice of Mrs. 
Corbin's marriage, viz.: "Marriages— Gawin Corbin, Esq., of 
Caroline,to Miss Betsey Jones.eldest daughter of Colonel Thomas 
Jones, of Northumberland." The eldest son Thomas, my great- 
grandfather, married, for his first wife, Elizabeth Beckwith, 
daughter of Sir Jonathan Beckwith, baronet, of Richmond 
county, Virginia, who died in 1777, a few weeks or months 
after her marriage, and he married in 178 1-2 Fanny Carter, 
daughter of Councillor Robert Carter of Nomini Hall, who was 
the mother of all his children. After his second marriage he 
owned and occupied, until his death in 1800, a home called 
Bathurst in Essex county. He was nearly always addressed and 
referred to during this later period, as Major Thomas Jones, 
or Major Thomas ap Thomas Jones which was his real name. 
Among the Jones Papers in the Library of Congress is a deed 
from his father-in-law Councillor Carter, dated 1785, conveying 
500 acres of land to his daughter Fanny, in which she is referred 
to as at the time "wife unto Major Thomas Jones, Jun'r son 
of Col. Thomas Jones of Hanover county," etc. Thus we find 



that he was described even by his father-in-law in the execu- 
tion of a most formal legal document as Major Thomas Jones, 
which would scarcely have been the case if he had not been 
legally entitled to be so designated. 

In Professor Chalkley's Abstracts of Augusta County 
Records there is reference to a suit filed in 1779 by Alexander 
Walker and wife Penelope against Jennings Beckwith, in which 
it is stated that Penelope was a daughter of Sir Jonathan 
Beckwith and that the other daughter Elizabeth Beckwith 
married Thomas Jones and died in 1777. Heitman says that 
Lieutenant Thomas Jones resigned May 7, 1777, and a letter 
from Adjutant General McCain of the War Department, in 
191 5, says: "The records of this office show that one Thomas 
Jones served in the Revolutionary War as a lieutenant in 
Captain Samuel Hawes' Company, 2d Virginia Regiment, 
commanded by Alexander Spottswood, esq." Col. Woodford 
had been made a brigadier-general in the meantime. "His 
name appears on a pay roll of this organization for May, 1777, 
which roll bears the following remark relative to him: '8 
dollars due from April 28 to May 9, at which time he resigned.' " 
My idea is that Lieutenant Thomas Jones of the Second 
Virginia was my ancestor Thomas Jones who married Elizabeth 
Beckwith and that he resigned when Heitman says he did with 
a view to a spring wedding. It is certain that my ancestor 
married Elizabeth Beckwith and that she died shortly after 
her marriage, in 1777, which left him free and perhaps all the 
more disposed to return to the army. In the Council Journal 
for 1777-8, pages 185-186, we find under date of January 27, 
1778, the following entry: 

"The General Assembly having by their Resolution of the 
23d of the present month, directed among other things, that an 
adjutant general be appointed by the Governor and Council of 



some active, studious and intelligent citizen of this State, who 
is to follow the Inspector General of Artillery, &c. appointed by 
another Resolution of the same date, and to rank as Lieutenant 
Colonel and the said Inspector General having strongly recom- 
mended Thomas Jones, jun. esquire for that ofhce, a Gentleman 
who has served a considerable time in the Second Virginia 
Regiment and who appears to possess the qualifications re- 
quired by the Resolution — the Board do, therefore, advise his 
Excellency to Commissionate that Gentleman, accordingly a 
commission was issued dated this day." The language of this 
entry makes it plain that the "Thomas Jones, jun. esquire" 
who was appointed adjutant general of artillery, the "Gentle- 
man who" had "served a considerable time in the Second 
Virginia Regiment," was none other than the First Lieutenant 
of the Second Virginia who resigned in May, 1777. The 
lieutenant of the Second Virginia was therefore a "Thomas 
Jones, jun'r," and under all the circumstances, there seems to 
be no room to doubt that he was the "Thomas Jones, jun'r, son 
of Col. Thomas Jones" mentioned in the preamble to Councillor 
Carter's deed. Among the Jones Papers in the Library of 
Congress there are twenty-four pages of closely written matter 
in the hand- writing of my ancestor Thomas Jones, jun'r, on 
the course, and distance attainable by a cannon ball when fired 
from a cannon at certain angles, and also on how to make 
gunpowder, its component parts and relative explosive power, 
matters which, presumably, would not have engaged the 
serious attention of one not immediately interested in problems 
of this character, but which might naturally engage the at- 
tention of an "active, studious and intelligent citizen" who was, 
or had been, in some manner, associated with the artillery 
branch of the service. Photostats of the twenty-four pages of 
this matter accompany this paper, and, if permitted, will be 



filed with the archives of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution in Memorial Continental Hall, Washington, D. C. 
The photostats, which were obtained by the writer from the 
Library of Congress in 1918, are in triplicate sets, each page has 
been mounted and each set separately bound by a photographer. 
In the report presented by Richard Henry Lee from the 
House of Delegates it is recommended that in selecting a suitable 
appointee for the office of adjutant general "regard should be 
had to the prospect of his succeeding to" the office of inspector 
general, "if circumstances should make it necessary." The 
order appointing the Frenchman, M. Loycaute, inspector 
general of artillery, is entered at page 186 of the Council Journal 
for 1777-8, under date of January 27, 1778, as follows: 'Tn 
conformity to a Resolve of the General Assembly appointing 
St. Francis arnvil Mishel diere donnede Loycaute Esquire 
Inspector General of Artillery, etc., the Governor gave him a 
Commission of this date." His duties are defined in the report 
of the committee, as follows: "Resolved, That Monsieur 
Loycaute ought to be engaged as Inspector General of Artillery, 
fortification and military stores; and that it be his duty to 
search for a proper place where a general school may be es- 
tablished, to be approved and appointed by the Governor and 
Council on his report; after which he is to proceed to collect 
materials, and construct the necessary works for executing his 
plan, and making such place a general school of instruction in 
the art of artillery, and fortification, and an arsenal for stores. 
He is also to examine accurately all parts of the State capable 
of being attacked, and susceptible of defense, and recommend 
to the Governor and Council such posts as may be most 
proper for batteries and other works, and for establishing small 
magazines for the more immediate supply of any place attacked. 
He is to superintend the artillery and fortifications, and return 



exact states of the stores from time to time, and direct the 
management of the school and arsenal." In view of the 
present war, I am tempted to reproduce here this further 
abstract from the report: "Resolved, That in consideration 
of the great merit of these foreign officers, in coming so far from 
home to assist in the cause of liberty, and of their extraordinary 
skill and trouble in the introduction of this useful art amongst 
us, they ought to receive the following gratuity each," etc. An 
entry in the same Journal at page 217, under date of March 
I3> 1778, reads: "A warrant was issued by the Governor, 
with the advice of the Council, for three hundred pounds 
payable to Colonel Thomas Jones for the use of Monsieur 
Loycaute upon account as Inspector General of Artillery &c." 
Whether this was the father Colonel Thomas Jones or the son 
Thomas Jones, jun'r, with his new rank of lieutenant colonel 
of artillery does not appear. To what extent the work ad- 
vanced or materialized under Monsieur Loycaute's super- 
vision does not appear. It appears that on May 18, 1778, the 
House of Delegates voted that, by his appointment as inspector 
general, "it was not intended he should have military command ;" 
whereupon, it appears, he resigned his office, and on page 256 
of the Journal, under date of May 20, 1778, we find the following : 
"M. Loycaute — Inspector General having thought proper to 
resign his commission, being dissatisfied with the vote of the 
House of Delegates declaring that he was not entitled, under 
his appointment to any military command, the same was 
received. And having delivered into the Board a state of his 
account of money expended by him in the execution of his 
office it was passed on his certificate of its being just and true, 
and the money in the said M. Loycaute's hands, together with 
the pay he had received, amounting to 395 pounds 14 shillings 
being returned it also was received and it is ordered that the 



clerk do carry it to the Treasurer and take his receipt for same, 
M. Loycaute refusing to accept any pay or allowance for his 
expenses during the time of his holding said command." In as 
much as Thomas Jones' position was that of adjutant general — 
that is, assistant general to the inspector general, and, according 
to the order appointing him, was "to follow the Inspector 
General," I suppose his office, ipso facto, terminated with the 
resignation of the inspector general, since there was no longer 
anything for him to be adjutant to. I am confident, however, 
that he afterwards received a commission as major in the army, 
and that it was as Major Thomas ap Thomas Jones that, 
according to my uncle's statement, he continued to render im- 
portant service by preparing and forwarding recruits to the 
army in the field. He did not marry his second wife earlier 
than late in December, 1781, or the following year, when the 
result of the battle of York Town, October, 1781, was under- 
stood to have practically ended the War of Independence. 

Respectfully submitted, 



10 



t» Lewis Hampton Jonas, of Louisville, Kentucky, make and subscribe the 
following Affidavit, to-wit: 

I am a son of Pauntleroy Jonas, late of Clark county, Kentucky, who was 
a eon of 'Squire Thomas ap Thomas Jones who died at his home in Clark county^ 
Ky. , in 1843, and who moved to Kentucky from Bathurst, his ancestral home, 
in Essex county, Virginia, in 1810 being an only son of Major Thomas ap 
Thomas Jones, of Bathurst, and I am the editor or compiler of a history of 
my family entitled "Jones of Virginia", or "Capt. Roger Jones of London and 
Virginia," etc. While engaged in colleoting material for the family history 
I had several oonversationa with my father and with my unoles Roger Jones 
and Joseph P, Jones both of whom lived and died in Clark county, my Uncle 
Roger's home was scarcely three miles from my father's home, and my Uncle 
Joseph's residence not more than a quarter of a mile, his farm adjoining 
my father's farm, both farms being composed in part of land received from 
their father and which had been part of the land belonging to the farm on 
which my grandfathar built his home where he lived until he died in 1843. 
and where his widow, my grandmother, and her younger son, my Unci© Joseph, 
continued to reside until her death in 1866, My father told me that his 
father told him that his father. Major Thomas ap Thomas Jones, of Bathurst, 
was a soldier in the Revolutionary army, and that an old flintlock musket 
which my grandfather brought from Virginia when he moved to Kentucky and 
which fell to my father in the final division of his father's property, came 
into the possession of my great-grandfather Major Jones while he belonged 
to the army* I have often seen the old gun in my father's home and handled 
it. Uncle Joseph told me that his grandfather had delicate health and did 
not see as much service in the field as he would otherwise have seen, but 
that he continued to render important service by recruiting, or preparing 
and forwarding recruits, etc., to the army in the field. My father was a 
graduate of Georgetown (£y») college and an extensively read man, while both 
of my uncles were intelligent, successful, money-making business men. This 



all ooourrsd before the Daughters of the American Revolution made their 
appearance and I regso-ded the information as simply adding to the material 
for an intaresting family history. I do not recall that the question as 
to the particular office held by my ancestor was ever discussed, everyone 
seemed to take it for granted that he vreis an officer in the army and I 
suppose thought, as I did, that there is where he got his title as major. 
After my book was published interest in the history of the family became 
much more lively, but no one ever raised a question as to the correctness 
of my statement in the book that my great-grandfather was a major in the 
army. My father and uncles all lived long after the book made its appear- 
ance* 

They, or some of them, told me that my great-grandfather's first wife 
was a Uiss Bsokwith who died in a very short time after her marriage - in 
a few weeks or, at farthest, a few months after the marriage, was the im - 
pression I had, I found at home, among the books my grandfather brought 

from Virginia, an old book which they said had belonged to her, which had 
the Beckwith coat of arms in it for a bookplate. t detached the bookplate 

and sent it to isr, R, a. Brock, of Richmond, Va. , and he published a de - 
acription of the arms in the Richmond Standard. It should be among the 
Jones papers in the library of Congress, in Washington* 

STATE OP EENTUCKY ♦ 

SCT 
COUHTY OP JEPPERSOaj 

--"' Vo^.t'^ijSj'ii ^^® /'^day of October, 1918, personally appeared before me, 
LEWrfs^'H, JOJJTES.^who signed the foregoing affidavit in my presence and made 
oatij tcH^^Sdl/Srutii 'iOf the statements therein contained. ^^— ^ y 

\^: .-•\/ HOTARY PUBXIC, JEPP2RS01J CO., Ef., 

Vv^r^^pmrnission expires January 11th, 1922» 




%*^^^o' "V^^'V^ V^^^V V^^'/ % 




^'V 















*bV° 



^^-^^^ 











-"0 



^ cv^^^su^- ^^.>'* :^^d^ii^.\ ^^Mr.^ oV^^^ia'- "^ov^ :^^^'* ''^^o^ 



'bv 



v-o^ 




^o^^^^^^.o'^ V"r^\/ %.'''^^'*J^ 





















%.<^ 



'^^o^ 




'oK 




'^o^ 








^-o.<^^' 







v-^^ 



V-^' 



. _ . /%. •,^.' ^*'% '^^P-' /\ 







"aV 



^ »L'^' 








- "^oV^ 



/ %^^%o^ V^'\/ V^%°' \;"^-\/ 




^A, 



.^^^ 






> ^;«jy^,. . 



















(.5°^ 




^^" %**-^^%o^ "v^^*\/^ "v^'^V ^''^^'^Z' 



\ 




0^ 



.^^°^ V 
























^oV 



v-c 









^^» .J^ ^W§i J^. -1 




.av-^. 








t 



